ID please (Irvine harbour - Ayrshire) (1 Viewer)

[hannu]

hEY FELLOWS, DO YOU TALKING ABOUT FIRST PIC OR SECOND PIC?

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

When I first saw this picture I thought maybe it was a raptor, like Sparrowhawk, Peregrine or Merlin.

Then I started wondering if it was maybe a Skylark.

Then I gave up.

 

[Tri-Counties Birder]

hEY FELLOWS, DO YOU TALKING ABOUT FIRST PIC OR SECOND PIC?

The first

 

[baphomet]

I'm going with wood pigeon

 

[hannu]

I don't see any facial mask of owl in the first pic....

 

[Ilya Maclean]

I'm going with wood pigeon

Ivory-billed woodpecker for me

 

[wally170]

Juvenile perigrine i think

Gets my vote.

 

[hannu]

I changed my mind, it's really peregrine....

 

[Wirral Rover]

I changed my mind, it's really peregrine....

Peregrine was my first instinct. Having read the threads, I am sticking to this first impression.

 

[Jos Stratford]

I don't see any facial mask of owl in the first pic....

looking the other way

 

[hannu]

looking the other way

through the bottom of bottle ? :t:

 

[KnockerNorton]

first impression was 'owl' for me. I actually got a flash of an oiled/dirty snowy (a la Felixstowe) for half a second, but I think it's a short-eared. That hunched appearance and fat head, with well mottled back. Gotta be. A juv peregrine wouldn't show so much pale splodging on the back, surely. And just look at it, it looks like a sack of spuds. Gotta be an owl.

 

[Helsinki Birder]

Apologies

Assumed we were discussing the second pic.

Pariah

 

[hannu]

Robert, do you have a bigger size and more bounded photo ?

 

[Ilya Maclean]

OK here goes with a bit of dodgy photo analysis. From right to left, the birds superimposed on the image are short-eared owl, merlin x 2, sparrowhawk x 2, peregrine buzzard. To me short-eared owl can immediately be ruled out on head shape. Buzzard can also be ruled out on general coloration (OK some are pale, but it doesn’t look right for me). I think peregrine would show the mask extending down the cheek, which this bird doesn’t have. That leaves sprawk and merlin. Could be either, but I’m leaning towards merlin just on overall jizz (I owned a pair of rubbish bins for over 15 years) and the fact it’s perched on the ground - something I’ve seen merlin’s do more than sparrowhawks.

 

[Frenchy]

Its a short-eared owl for me. The pale overall colouration and structure seem good, while there seems to be a row of pale spotting on the scapulars. Good for SEO, bad for any falcon. Not completely sure which way it is facing.

 

[Hotspur]

for me its the width of the bird in pic 1 that rules out most stuff

 

[Ilya Maclean]

Its a short-eared owl for me. The pale overall colouration and structure seem good, while there seems to be a row of pale spotting on the scapulars. Good for SEO, bad for any falcon. Not completely sure which way it is facing.

You could be right, but I can't get SEO. If it was facing towards the camera I reckon the face mask would be more obvious. If it's facing side on or away, I'm not sure you'd get the pale collar effect

 

[Frenchy]

Yeah, surprisingly tricky this one, and another example of where a picture is a lot harder than if you'd actually seen the bird in the field. Or if it had been seen to fly off.....

 

[tittletattler]

I don't see any facial mask of owl in the first pic....

I downloaded the pic and then zoomed in and it has too small a head for an owl.

The head pattern doesn't seem to match Peregrine as it appears to have a supercilium. However the supercilium doesn't appear marked enough or contrast with the eye-stripe so not Goshawk either, I feel.

If one observer thought that this was a Goshawk, then that should hopefully discount Merlin!

The bird appears to be grey.

White marks in the remiges and especially on the scapulars is regular in Sparrowhawk.

Looks like a female sproghawk.

Cheers,

Andy.